On 15 April 2004 the Georgia Elections
Assistance Programme came to an official end with staff leaving or
returning to their normal duties within the Mission. Through the
month of May a skeleton team will remain to complete financial and
narrative reporting on the GEAP programme as well as to provide
assistance to national implementing partners in fulfilling their
reporting requirements to the Mission.

28 March 2004, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Voting for a new parliament. Mission photo.

The second phase of the assistance
provided by OSCE Participating States through the Georgia Elections
Assistance Programme (GEAP) culminated with the elections on 28
March 2004. On Election Day the GEAP fielded seven teams, observing
more than 60 election commissions from 13 different districts
covering several regions of Georgia. In addition, Tbilisi based
activities of the CEC and domestic election observer organizations
were closely monitored. The teams focused on observing the impact of
GEAP funded activities on the conduct of the vote. On matters
targeted through GEAP projects, particularly noteworthy impact were
observed in the functioning of election commissions, the public
information campaign, the conduct of police officers and the
application of voter marking.

TBILISI, 16 Mar 2004 - Under two agreements signed today OSCE
(GEAP) made a total of 170,000 euros available to fund part of the
Central Election Committee's (CEC) Voter Information Campaign and
Voter Marking activities. The first activity will support the CEC to
raise public awareness and the second protect the integrity of the
elections through voter marking, which will prevent multiple voting.
The agreements were signed by the CEC Chairperson, Zurab
Chiaberashvili, and the Head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia,
Ambassador Roy Reeve.

"We are very grateful for the speedy
and successful assistance by the OSCE for both presidential and now
parliamentary Elections. In the future, we hope the OSCE will also
help carry forward sound reforms of the election administration, as
laid out in our recent concept paper," Tchiaberashvili said at the
signing ceremony.

"These agreements mark the culmination
of this phase of short-term assistance provided through the OSCE. We
now look forward to working closely with the CEC on sustainable
long-term reforms," Ambassador Reeve said.

TBILISI, 17 Feb 2004 - Georgian Minister
of Finance Mr. Zurab Nogaideli, and Ambassador Roy Reeve, Head of
the OSCE Mission to Georgia, signed the Agreement on the
Replenishment of the Expenses of the Government of Georgia for the
Parliamentary Elections on 28 March 2004, in the amount of 1 million
Euros. The project will fund basic election administration
operational costs and, in this way, support the Central Election
Commission with resources to administer the elections in an
effective manner.

12 February GEAP representatives met with
the designated OSCE counterpart in the Georgian Ministry of Foreign
affairs. The Head of GEAP presented the proposed outline for OSCE
post-Parliamentary elections assistance (Phase III of the GEAP). The
Deputy Director of the Department for International Organizations
expressed his full support and appreciation for the OSCE initiative
in this field and welcomed further steps in this regard.

11-19 February GEAP is hosting three
short-term consultants who will conduct a detailed needs assessment
on the requirement for post-parliamentary electoral assistance to be
rendered through a third phase of the GEAP. Based on information
gathered from key national players and in close interaction with
other international players the consultants will provide
recommendations by the end of February on the form and extent of a
GEAP Phase III.

8 February - In preparation for the Parliamentary
Elections scheduled for 28 March, the Mission has prepared an outline of activities to be implemented
in the framework of Phase II of the Georgia Elections Assistance
Programme. This outline includes project descriptions overarching
four main programmatic areas such as capacity building for election
administration bodies, domestic observation, voter education and
capacity building for the Civil Registration Department of the
Ministry of Justice.

PHASE I of the Georgia
Elections Assistance Programme culminated when Presidential
Elections were held in Georgia on 4 January 2004.

Former President Eduard Shevardnadze voting on 4 January 2004.
Photo: Steven Weinberg

The assistance provided by OSCE
participating States within the framework of the Georgia Elections
Assistance Programme has enabled the timely transfer of funds from
the Ministry of Finance of Georgia to the election administration
bodies, to cover salaries of election officials. This has provided a
crucial contribution to realizing Presidential Elections within an
extremely tight timeframe. Moreover, the Programme has enabled
the civil society to play an important role in promoting much needed
confidence of the public in the electoral process, through domestic
observation, training and media campaigns.

Statement of the CEC Chairman, 8 January 2004“Without the strong will of the international community to
support the young Georgian democracy, the Georgian people and
government would have faced very serious problems in attempting to
conduct the Mid-Term Presidential elections in accordance with the
timeframes established by the Constitution. I would like to thank
donor countries and international organizations for providing the
immediate and effective financial and technical support and
consultations. It is very difficult for me, as a citizen of Georgia,
to find enough words to express my appreciation for the enormous
moral support which the democratic world has expressed towards
Georgia.”(see full text)

OSCE Press Conference in Tbilisi, 19 DecemberTBILISI, 19 December 2003 - As of
today, almost four million euros have been pledged by 17 OSCE
participating States for the "Georgia Elections Assistance Programme",
said the Head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia, Ambassador Roy Reeve.
(see full text)